Paint pads are becoming increasingly popular for applying paint due to a number of factors, including the evenness with which a layer of paint or other coating can be applied on flat surfaces. Such pads can also bring paint very close to an interior corner formed by two meeting surfaces or planes. But, to date, a good system for applying a very even coating to such interior junctions or corners has not appeared on the market in a paint pad which can paint flat surfaces and such interior corners with equal ease. Likewise, a paint pad which can paint exterior corners and flat surfaces with equal facility has not been known.
A number of proposals have been made for paint pads which address these tasks but none can be described as having achieved general acceptance in the sense that the same pad may be used during one painting job for painting flat surfaces, interior corners and exterior corners. Attempts by prior art workers to achieve one or more of these painting conditions are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,464,079, 3,713,744, 3,728,755, 3,051,977 and 4,674,144. Of the products illustrated in said patents, the '079 and '144 patents show pads useful for painting exterior corners only, and the '744 and '755 and '977 patents disclose applicators which are incapable of painting exterior corners. Of particular significance is that none of the devices of the above prior art are capable of reorientation during use in the sense of adaptation to a different painting condition from paint loading to paint loading without breaking the rhythm of the paint applicator user. Further, none of the known prior devices are applicable to surface junctions having angles greater or lesser than a right angle, as well as right angle junctions.
Thus, a need exists for a pad-type universal paint applicator which can apply paint or other coating to flat surfaces, interior corners and exterior corners with equal facility by using only hand applied pressure exerted on the paint applicator during the painting operation so that the painting rhythm of the user is uninterrupted.